Years ago, a donation of files was given to Rimrocker Historical Society by one who wishes to remain anonymous, but who did work on original mining safety claims. The Rimrocker ladies took those files, stored them and over time used them randomly when someone wanted them to dig. Now that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) has opened back up under new legislation, those files are enabling the Rimrockers to help miners, or their families, access nursing support or even financial compensation, and a new wave of visitors is now entering the front door of the museum in Nucla.
The Rimrockers have helped people from Nucla, Dove Creek, Missouri and other places who worked in any of the uranium mines in the local area. They’ve helped family members too, since unmarried surviving wives or children of workers may be eligible for monetary support.
The Rimrocker ladies have a system. They’ve created a form for people who come in and ask to be identified in the record. Their records start in the early 1960s and end in 1988. The new legislations supports workers up to 1990.
The Rimrockers said it’s all about working level months, or WLM, and they can prove it, based on their documents. The ladies have created spreadsheets of their files, and they can show who was on the clock. The law says even maintenance workers above ground who went inside the mines might be eligible, if they can prove they worked a year doing that. They have other types of interesting mining records too from the past.
Once miners or families get their record, they can talk with an attorney, for example Killian Law, to determine their eligibility. Miners will have to likely take health tests too.
Jane Thompson and Sharon Johannsen, head of the Rimrockers, are sisters. Their grandfather was one of the early days miners, back in the 1930s and 1940s, before the regulations were more strict, when the ventilation was poorer, and back when everybody smoked cigarettes. Their grandfather with others like the late Marie Templeton’s husband were entitled to support because of the nature of their mining careers.
Thompson said the new legislation, though, makes it easier in some ways for miners to get support, even in more recent times. That’s because there are changes to the smoking policies, and the new health tests are better at assessing mining-related illnesses. Some who were previously rejected may now qualify, even in more recent decades like the 1980s.
Thompson said someone may not believe they’re ill now, but having support in place could make end of life easier. Anyone who comes into the museum and who says they were a miner, or that their parent was, Thompson always asks if they’ve applied for compensation.
The historians never share anyone else’s information. They redact records for those who are identified on the list and need their proof. They have access to Union Carbide employees, but also contract employees.
Some people have come in and been disappointed they’re not on the list. Thompson said they can’t control that. They only have what was given to them. They’re just the record keepers of the files bequeathed to the Rimrocker Historical Society.
Others have said they threw their old paperwork away thinking none of it was important. They’ve been glad to learn the Rimrockers have the records now.
For those that qualify, up to $150,000 is a possibility. Thompson said the money can help people and the nursing support could keep a sick person in their own home .
“If we can help these guys be able to stay home and have a nurse and keep track of them, then the family will be blessed,” she said.
Thompson never thought this would be part of her job. For her, memories come flooding in when she reads the files. She’s got a list of people who died before 1974. Growing up in Uravan with a father who also worked in the mines, she knew many of them.
The CNS organization, Home Health Care for Energy Workers in Colorado, is coming to the Rimrocker Historical Society Museum monthly now for the RECA work. They’ll be there again Oct. 2.
Thompson said she and Johannsen are happy to help.
“It’s up to them to take the step, but we’ll help and support anyone who wants to try,” Thompson said. “Some don’t even realize it’s available.”
